In recent years, tungsten carbide (WC) has attracted considerable attention for catalytic and electro-catalytic applications since the discovery of its Pt-like characteristics as reported by Levy and Boudart.1 It is well known that WC has high catalytic activity for hydrogenolysis and isomerization reactions.2-7 Tungsten carbide is also reported to exhibit certain activity for many electrochemical reactions of interest, including hydrogen oxidation,8, 9 oxygen reduction,10, 11 hydrogen evolution reaction (HER),12 and oxidation of various organic molecules.9 Although its electro-catalytic activity was usually not sufficient, the low cost and insensitivity to catalyst poisons such as CO make it an interesting alternative to noble metal catalyst. Other than direct use as a catalyst, tungsten carbide has also been intensively studied as a catalyst support for various reactions.10, 13-15 Particularly, its high corrosion resistance and superior electronic conductivity renders WC suitable as an electro-catalyst support for various electrochemical applications, such as fuel cells.16-18 For example, higher catalytic activity has been reported for Pt/WC compared to Pt/C due to the synergistic effect between Pt and WC.19, 20 
Also, sustainable hydrogen production through splitting of water has attracted great scientific interest in the past decades.34, 35 By far, extensive research efforts have been made in developing advanced electrocatalysts with reduced overpotential for hydrogen evolution reaction (HER).36-42 Typically, electrocatalytic system for hydrogen evolution incorporates noble metals such as platinum (Pt) because of their high electroactivity. However, the high cost and scarcity of noble metals are serious barriers for their wide use in the water electrolysis.43 
Conventionally, several routes have been adopted to synthesize WC powder, including direct carburization of tungsten or W-containing compounds at high temperature (typically, higher than 1400° C.), solid state metathesis and mechanical milling. However, these approaches often lead to low specific surface area, large particle size and poor morphology control. Commercial WC and WC synthesized by reported methods are normally lower than 10 m2 g−1 and the maximum value reported is ˜100 m2 g−1.11, 21-29 To synthesize nanostructured WC with high surface area and controlled morphology still remains a challenge.30, 31 Furthermore, the ability to control specific nanostructure is critical for the tuning of its physical and chemical property, especially when WC is to be used as catalyst support.